President Bach: 'No organization is immune to corruption, not even the IOC'

IOC President Thomas Bach speaks to media after the first day of Executive Board meetings in Lima, Peru (Photo: IOC)

by Sonja Nikcevic, AIPS Media

LIMA, September 11, 2017 – It took 40
minutes of IOC President Thomas Bach’s press conference for a question to be
asked about Paris, Los Angeles and the historic double allocation of the 2024/2028
Olympic Games.

The non-vote that the IOC Session in Lima
is centered around provided only a meager afterthought of doubt on whether
awarding an Olympic Games 11 years ahead of time brought any concerns to the
IOC.

Thomas Bach replied, in recognizable good
form, that it would have been a mistake for the IOC “not to seize the golden
opportunity” of awarding the 2024 and 2028 Games to Paris and Los Angeles
respectively.

“Eleven years has an advantage in these
times, which cannot be considered stable times, that the IOC will enjoy great
stability,” Bach said.

Stability and lack thereof

The rest of the press conference following
the first day of the Executive Board meetings did not however point to such stable times within the International Olympic Committee.

Earlier that morning, the Board had
released a statement for the first time openly confirming the potential involvement of Lamine Diack in vote-rigging
scheme for the awarding of the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro. Just last
week Brazilian Federation President Carlos Nuzman was detained by local police
on grounds that he had been involved with Diack in buying votes for Rio.

It was earlier confirmed that Kuwait’s once highly influential IOC
member Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah would not be attending the Session in
Lima, amidst fears he would be detained as a part of an ongoing investigation in
the USA on his involvement in corruption within FIFA. Officially and conveniently, he was unable to attend due to preparations for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat. Patrick Hickey, detained
during Rio 2016 as a part of a separate Brazilian investigation into ticket
rigging during the Games, had sent in his resignation from the EB just days
before.

Questions regarding the credibility of the
IOC were all round.

Damaging image

“Nobody wants to have credibility issues in
his or her organization, but we have to face the reality that no organization
is immune [to corruption and fraud], but we think we have done what we can do,”
Bach said, responding to queries on Diack, Nuzman and the image of the IOC
which no longer seems to have the moral high ground it had taken during the
corruption scandals and allegations that rocked world footballing body FIFA in
2015, for example. At the time, the IOC president had called for greater checks in all international associations, FIFA in particular, in turn distancing himself and his organization from any comparisons with FIFA's corruption and vote buying allegations.

He has since found the IOC back in the votes-for-bribes narrative that had rocked the Olympic world after the awarding of the 2002 Salt Lake City winter
Olympics.

Bach however, insisted that those times were long past.

Pointing to the IOC’s stricter reforms in
city allocation following Agenda 2020, the work of the internal ethics
committee and the building of a ‘roust governance compliance system’ as the central point of credibility, Bach
continued: “These are not just words and a commitment to change, but action, as is visible on the IOC’s swift action
in the case of Lamine Diack being stripped of honorary membership as soon as
evidence of his involvement [in corruption] was provided.

“We have done what we could as an
organization,” Bach said. “Our governance system works in both prevention and
implementation, and the IOC, our Athletes Commission and Ethics Committee are
waiting on evidence from Brazilian judicial authorities regarding Carlos Nuzman,
in order to act,” the IOC president insisted, adding that he himself had not
been in touch of one of the key figures of last year’s Olympic Games

“Having undertaken these reforms does not
mean that we ignore the past, he added, “this will be addressed with these new
instruments, and as we said, once evidence is provided.”

It seemed however that Bach was using Diack
as a scapegoat for a deeper issue within the IOC that is hardly likely to
involve just one “black sheep” individual, and one that will not be solved by
dodging questions on obvious reputational damage to the IOC once again.

North
Korean threat

Bach was also asked to comment on the
mounting tensions in North Korea and impending geopolitical concerns in the
region ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games. North Korea’s increased involvement
in missile testing has brought edged responses from governments of not just
neighboring South Korea but also Japan and China – the host countries of the following
two editions of the Summer and Winter Games.

“There is no doubt being raised about the
Winter Games 2018,” Bach said, confirming the IOC had been in touch with the
governments involved. “[The IOC] appeals for diplomatic solution, we appeal for
peace.

“Right now, the UN member states are
discussing a draft of an Olympic truce resolution for PyeongChang 2018 and we
hope that these discussions will be approved in UN General Assembly in November,”
the IOC President said, added that the door would be open for the participation
of North Korean athletes in the Games next Feburuary, a sentiment that had been
repeated earlier in the day by Chairman of PyeongChang 2018 Organizing Committee
Lee Hee Beom.

“We are hoping that North Korean athletes
will be given the necessary support to take part [in the Games], and we hope
peace will prevail on the Korean peninsula.

“So far there is not even a hint that there
is a treat for the security of the Games in this context of tensions with North
Korea,’” the IOC president said.